George Floyd was a victim of American gun culture

The triple guilty verdict on Derek Chauvin for the murder of George Floyd was greeted with general relief across the United States. The massed ranks of police and National Guard waiting in the wings for possible disturbances were mostly stood down, and President Biden said that Chauvin’s conviction ‘can be a giant step forward in the march toward justice in America’ while insisting ‘we can’t stop here’.

The point has been made that a white police officer being found guilty of murdering an unarmed black man is a rarity in the United States. But it is also worth noting that the conviction, indeed, the fact that anyone was tried at all, was largely a result of the unequivocal evidence recorded by a passer-by. It could be argued that what has changed is less police or public attitudes than the arrival of mobile phones and social media.

Something else that has been demonstrated is how selectively the media make connections — to the detriment of the wider picture.